Strength and determination in all she did
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Patricia Mary Hehir (born April 5 1935, died July 5 2024). <br />
The longest serving pastoral associate in the Adelaide Archdiocese, Patricia (Pat) Hehir was the backbone of the Clearview and then Clearview-Kilburn parish over nearly four decades.
Pat was born in 1935 at Calvary Hospital in North Adelaide. She was the eldest of five children to Francis Vincent (Frank) and Vera Mary (Viv) Bergin from Gladstone and Stone Hut. Her siblings soon followed: Deirdre, Kevin, Tony and Marie.
With her father Frank working as a prison warden, Pat and her siblings grew up in a house next to Yatala gaol. When asked if she was scared being so close to the prisoners, she said that her dad always reassured her that should a prisoner escape, the last place he would go was the house next door!
While Pat spent her early years at ‘the gaol’, the family eventually moved to their home on Churchill Road at Prospect.
The circumstances of this move were quite life changing for the whole family.
In 1948 Pat’s grandfather Fred Delsar, then 63, saw a motor cyclist killed in an accident outside their Churchill Road home. He assisted in the aftermath. Only four hours later he was himself killed, in a level crossing crash in Woodville. It was Christmas Eve. The Christmas presents he and his wife Mary were taking to family were strewn across the accident site. Her grandfather died but Pat’s grandmother Mary, who was badly injured, survived.
Subsequently the Bergins moved into the Churchill Road house. Pat was the advance party, spending her 14th birthday alone in the house that would become her home until she married and moved to Clearview.
Pat came from pretty good sporting stock. Frank played for Glenelg and was in the team that won the 1934 grand final, kicking two goals in that game. Pat excelled at netball (then known as women’s basketball) and high jump.
She trained with the Adelaide Harriers in her high jump pursuits. One of the stories she often told was about the facilities available to the women and girls training with the Harriers. After a training session while the men showered and changed in the clubrooms, Pat would change at the back of the building out of the sight of passing trains and straddling the dirty water that flowed from the showers. She then hopped on her bike and rode home!
Her persistence with sub-standard training facilities paid off. She was state high jump champion from 1953 to 1957, jumping 5’1”. It took till 1968 for anyone to again reach that height. She made the 1956 Olympic squad, missing out on competing when she came second in a countback at the national selection trials.
Summer was for athletics and winter was for netball. Pat captained the State’s National Catholic Girls Movement (NCGM) team, played for and captained Tango in the district league as well as the SA state team.
Pat met her future husband Bob Hehir, also a champion South Australian athlete, at athletics training and events and at local Church dances. They married in 1957 at St Laurence’s Church in North Adelaide and soon moved into their new home in Clearview.
Angela was born in 1959 and Damian arrived in 1970. Pat worked and volunteered in a number of positions while the children were growing up. She was a weekend receptionist at Channel 7, a housekeeper for Fr Robin Sutherland when the presbytery was in Taunton Road, Enfield, and was netball and athletics coach with St Gabriel’s and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College. All the teams she coached were formidable and Pat produced many premierships for school and district teams.
Pat discovered another great passion in her work for the Church, in particular the parish of the Good Shepherd. She found that she could channel her inner strength and drive to help build the parish and the community it served. Beginning with Fr Sutherland, she became more involved in the workings of the parish and the wider diocese. Pat worked closely with the late Fr Jim Sayers, who was a good friend to Pat and Bob, along with Fr Michael Trainor and then Fr Leon Czechowicz. Fr Leon spent time with Pat throughout her illness and in her final weeks, and was a great support to the family.
In 1980 Pat was appointed parish pastoral associate when Fr Sayers was parish priest. She undertook university study and was awarded a diocesan diploma in Church Ministry when she was in her 50s. Subsequently she filled the role of deputy chair of the Diocesan Pastoral Council and was part of the Diocesan Liturgical Commission. In 2006 Pat received a papal honour, Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great.
The first woman in the diocese to take up the position of pastoral associate and the first lay person in SA to be offered the position, Pat was the longest serving pastoral associate in the Archdiocese – 38 years.
Fr Leon said when he was appointed as parish priest at Clearview-Kilburn Parish in January 2006, he had been advised by other clergy that Pat was a formidable person and that he needed to “watch my step”.
“I had heard from others that she had been an outstanding athlete, just missed out on being chosen at Olympic Games level and so I came with a touch of trepidation wondering what to expect,” he said.
“To my surprise I discovered a dedicated parishioner who was not only involved, heart and soul, in looking after the parish but was also fully observant of the needs of the people and was able to look after each parishioner in a loving and caring way.
“Added to that, she was a hard worker, very loyal to me as parish priest but at the same time friendly and relaxed and someone who was easy to be with in the day-to-day running of the parish.”
As well as these achievements, Pat had a family that she loved. She and Bob welcomed Michael, Lee-Anne and two beautiful grandsons into the family. In 1998 she had her first grandchild, Patrick James, and in 2000 Liam Robert arrived.
She also enjoyed her travels. In 1984, with Bob, Damian and Fr Jim Sayers, Pat visited Italy, Israel, England and Ireland.
While in Ireland Pat went to the town of Geashill and found gravestones of her Bergin ancestors dating back to the 1800s. Of course, she also went to the Blarney Castle and kissed the Blarney stone.
In 1990 Pat travelled alone with a tour group to Medjugorje and then with Bob she enjoyed trips to New Zealand and Kangaroo Island as well as regular trips to Sydney to catch up with the grandsons.
Bob passed away in 2012 after Pat had cared for him in the home he loved during his final years. It was a difficult time as Pat also continued her work for the parish, but they shared this time together.
In her last five years Pat resided at the Klemzig Infin8 Care Nursing Home and became an important part of the community.
Pat will be remembered for her strength and her grit – as a young person, in her work, as a wife caring for her husband, through to her struggle with the health issues that finally claimed her. Never a complaint, just a strong will to get on with things and to do her very best with steely determination and persistence.
Adapted from the family eulogy prepared by Angela Fardy and Damian Hehir
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